“The bicycle industry is entering a new age of bike design.” So begins the new Wiki page for the Open Source Xtracycle LongTail Standard. Xtracycle realizes that the demand for an open-source standard is increasing, so they put the basics of their longtail design online for anyopne to use free of charge. PDF downloads with dimensions and design guidelines are available on the web page.

The “future products” discussion area of the site is probably of interest to readers of this blog. You can share your ideas for future products and accessories, but keep in mind that anything you share on the page is “now open-source and as such is available for everyone to use freely.”Thanks to Fritz for the tip on this. Read more about it over at Cyclelicious.

2 Comments

Are there any international standards for open source invention, similar to Creative Commons? It seems to be a grey zone.

I’m dissatisfied with patent law, it seems like patenting an invention is useless for small enterprise, because it pretty much just gives you the right to sue someone for infringement. A large company can almost always outlast the little guy in court if they really want to steal an invention.

For many designs and inventions I’d much rather do something like Creative Commons. You can use it, hack it, modify it for non-profit purposes. Hell for most things I don’t care if someone else copies it for commercial purposes, just give the creator credit.

The way I see it, by the time a large company is paying attention to something I’ve designed, I’m already two years ahead when it comes to my next idea. Why waste energy fighting for the past when I can invest it in the future?